October 17th, 2008

Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan Croissant

Coco&Me - Pierre Hermé Ispahan Croissant - www.cocoandme.com

Coco&Me - Pierre Hermé Ispahan Croissant - www.cocoandme.com

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Last Tuesday I read on Dorie’s blog that Pierre Hermé sells croissants with Ispahan flavour. The picture she took of it looked sooo good, sooo drool-manufacturing, I decided to use my ‘wild-card’ & ask my Paris-residing brother to get it for me & bring it to London (I say ‘wild-card’ because I rarely want to ask him – the reason being, A, he is super-busy, & B, he is clueless about cakes!).

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This week is my lucky week. He happened to have traveled to London to see his Phd tutor about his papers. – And so there they were, MY croissants in a cute P.H. bag, with added bonus of twenty macarons (two each of ten kinds). Yessss…

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“Ispahan” is Hermé’s signature flavour, composed of rose, litchi & raspberry (Apparently he came up with this now iconic flavour-combo back in his days as a executive chef at Ladurée – & that the patisserie retains the rights to sell them too).

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This croissant version has rose-flavoured almond cream with a couple of lichis studded inside, & has freeze-dried bits of raspberry scattered on top of the white icing. Unfortunately mine wasn’t with pink icing like Dorie’s… (I want cute-sy PINK P.H.!) But regardless of the icing-colour, the taste was superb, with a mixed sensation of buttery almond cream & pastry together with the tangy raspberry bits & fruity lichis that refreshes the palate.

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Humpf… Why can’t we buy beautiful croissants like these in London?! Or, even better, why doesn’t Pierre Hermé open a shop here in London??

Posted in Delicious purchases

29 Comments »

  1. looks like your dreams are about to come true. I hear Pierre would be opening a shop in London. but shhh, that’s still a secret.

    xx fanny

    Comment by fanny - October 18, 2008 2:30 pm

  2. I agree!!! We want P.H in London.

    Comment by TiramisuLuver - October 18, 2008 9:45 pm

  3. YOU SERIOUS Fanny?! O.m.g. that would be sooo cool…
    .
    And ‘TiramisuLuver’, we’ll be queuing up for sure right? (by the way, I haven’t had a decent tiramisu in ages…!)

    Comment by tamami - October 19, 2008 12:44 pm

  4. Oh my god, this is such a coincidence but I was in Paris this weekend and went to Pierre Hermé’s and bought myself some cakes and macarons! I ate the macarons just half an hour in fact hehehe. Didn’t try the Ispahan croissants though; being not overly fond of rose, almond and raspberry flavoured things. But what are litchis? Are they lychees? If they are, I like them!

    Comment by Jan - October 19, 2008 8:21 pm

  5. Ohhhhhh, I’m so envious… :'(

    Comment by Rachel - October 19, 2008 8:35 pm

  6. Hi Jan! Yes, lychees! is that how you spell it? lol. oh well…
    Lucky you that you were in Paris! by the way, the macarons, there’s some odd flavours he does, right? There were some that we thought was definately a “non”. “Wasabi & grapefruit” for example. and the “white-truffle”… On the otherhand, “vanilla” was heavenly, aswell as the “passion fruit”.

    Comment by tamami - October 19, 2008 8:39 pm

  7. Hello Rachel! I guess no P.H. in N.Y. right? But I’m sure there’s plenty of lovely cake shops there…!

    Comment by tamami - October 19, 2008 8:40 pm

  8. Oh wow, Pierre Herme in London! That’s just the kind of news I want to hear on Monday morning.

    Even comparing baked goods in America and UK makes UK look so boring. Everything is so safe…

    Comment by tommy - October 20, 2008 7:43 am

  9. Hi Tamami-san

    I’ve always loved PH’s viennoiseries and this Ispahan version looks fantastic too! (and what can it be better than having a lovely brother in Paris? :))

    And PH in London, yay! Can’t wait, maybe we can pay a visit together?

    Hope all is well, take care. kxx

    Comment by keiko - October 20, 2008 5:45 pm

  10. Tamami,

    I didn’t try the wasabi and grapefruit because it wasn’t available when I went (probably sold-out?) but I did try the white truffle and I have to say I liked it! It could be because I’m kind of in truffle mode since I’ve been indulging in truffle eating over the weekend.

    My favourite was probably the chocolate one :)

    Comment by Jan - October 20, 2008 6:49 pm

  11. Hi Tommy,
    I totally ‘ditto’ that about ‘everything is safe’ here. So boring. Infact, most stuff is also quite low-quality too… By the way, I love your pictures on your blog! It makes me want to go and buy lomo & polaroid cameras. I love that washed out/ out-of-focus look. I’ve been browsing your site, page by page, ever since your comment!
    .
    Hello keiko-san!
    You’re on. 一緒に行きましょうね！But hopefully we won’t wait that long to see each other！今度ロンドンに来たら是非マーケットに寄ってネ！ぜひ会ってみたいですっ。　xx
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    Hey Jan,
    indulging in truffle eating over the weekend?! Wow girly! You are indeed lucky… – My fave was the Vanilla :)

    Comment by tamami - October 21, 2008 9:54 am

  12. Well, I’m in Chicago, not NY, and neither of my two favourite Pierres (Herme and Marcolini) has a shop here. :( Worse yet, all the cake shops here seem to be slaves to the trend of savoury cupcakes. Yuck!!!

    Oh well, yet another reason to come back to London…

    Comment by Rachel - October 22, 2008 3:57 am

  13. hi Rachel, you’re in Chicago?? Oh well, it’s lots of pizzas and hotdogs for you then. Although, I have heard about a place called The Cheesecake Factory in your city. Have you ever been? Any good?? xx

    Comment by Tamami - October 22, 2008 9:16 am

  14. I sent you your pictures

    Comment by helenarostunova - October 22, 2008 6:48 pm

  15. Many many thanks Helena! They are AMAZING! xx

    Comment by Tamami - October 23, 2008 7:43 pm

  16. こんばんは！
    こんなのみつけたよ。
    http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/sweets/closeup/CU20081020A/

    Pエルメ氏の2008年クリスマスケーキだそうです！
    いいねー。

    また、土曜日に！

    Comment by ikuko - October 24, 2008 1:09 am

  17. おはよう、いくこさん！
    リンクありがとう！なんかハンドバッグみたいなケーキですね。斬新！Pエルメ氏のcreationだからおいしいんでしょうね。。。うーん、一度でいいから食べてみたいですね。。。

    Comment by tamami - October 24, 2008 7:45 am

  18. oh my goshhhhhhhhhhhh Tamami, it’s oishiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :-P Maybe you can create a cake or pastry using the ispahan?

    Comment by pixen - October 24, 2008 9:08 pm

  19. Hello Pixen,
    it was v. tasty! I don’t think I’ll recreate Ispahan though because I don’t have the right ingredients! xx

    Comment by tamami - October 24, 2008 10:11 pm

  20. The Cheesecake Factory does have good cheesecakes, but it’s a national chain and fairly slick and corporate, so I tend to avoid it. If you’re ever in Chicago, the best cake shops (in my opinion, anyway) are the Swedish Bakery, Sweet Thang, Julius Meinl and Cafe Selmarie. Not a savoury cupcake in sight! ;)

    Comment by Rachel - October 24, 2008 10:58 pm

  21. Wow, I see. I like that you’ve checked out where the best cake shops are in Chicago already!! xx

    Comment by tamami - October 25, 2008 6:55 pm

  22. It was so lovely to meet you at your stall the other Saturday (I’m the girl from Sydney who’s been here about 8 months and has been reading your blog for a long time) – the lemon drizzle cake was DIVINE – just the right amount of everything. Can’t wait to come back and try more – plus the markets are my new favourite!

    Comment by Julia - November 3, 2008 4:46 pm

  23. Hello Julia!
    Wow, thank you for leaving a comment on my blog!! .
    It’s fantastic that we met – always a pleasure talking to blog readers. Finding out where you’re from and stuff. I have no idea about who reads this blog, so it’s very interesting!

    I’m happy you liked the lemon drizzle cake! That cake is doing well on the stall, & is now a regular item!

    .
    I’m glad you liked the market – come back for another chat!
    t xx

    Comment by Tamami - November 4, 2008 9:40 am

  24. Hmmmm!!! Croisant!! My passion!! Doesn’t matter with what it filled, salty, sweet. I love croisant!

    Comment by Talita - February 4, 2009 8:04 pm

  25. I totally love any type of Croissants too! :-)

    Comment by tamami - February 4, 2009 8:33 pm

  26. Wow, I love your blog! I wish my farmer’s market had such sweets as yours. :)
    btw, I just wanted to let you know that Dorie has changed her links a bit, the blog entry you are linking to is now http://www.doriegreenspan.com//2008/10/chez-pierre-herme-an-ispahan-to-start-the-day.html

    Comment by Tieng - April 20, 2009 9:43 pm

  27. THANKS for that Tieng!^^

    Comment by tamami - April 21, 2009 12:50 am

  28. Tamami san,
    Just came back from 4-month study in China. It’s good to visit your blog again.

    沖縄、あつーい。中国は人の多さ、うるささ、汚さにはマイッタけど、面白い国でもあります。しばらくは行かないけど。

    Comment by Toyomi - July 11, 2010 7:44 pm

  29. とよみさん！久しぶりのコメント有り難うございます！！
    またとよみさんとコンタクトがとれて嬉しいっ！
    中国に４ヶ月とは凄いですねー。
    お仕事頑張ってるんですね。
    中国は食べ物が美味しそーと思うのですが、旅行で行きたい所だったら私はアイスランドかな？
    まあ、火山噴火やらで今はどうかなとは思いますけど。。。
    でもいつかwhale-watchingをしたいんです。
    ー　毎回同じ事を言うつもりはないのですが、Dと相変わらず宮古の事を夢見てます。
    最近、紳介プロデュ−スで宮古の事を見てるんでいつか訪れる夢が拡大してます。
    とよみさんはよく帰られていますか？
    沖縄、暑そう！！お元気でいて下さいねっ！

    Comment by tamami - July 12, 2010 12:26 am

 

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